For many children, the death of a family pet is their first big loss. Tell the truth to your kids about what is happening, using simple terms. A friend of mine found out as an adult that her mother had lied to her as a child about her dog “going to the farm,” and she felt betrayed those years later. Death is a part of our animals’ lives. Explain that animals sometimes die much sooner than we want them to and that their bodies don’t live as long as humans do.

 

By Monica MansfieldEuthanasia is one of the toughest decisions pet owners face. Whether due to slowly debilitating disease, severe illness, or a traumatic accident, this is always a poignant time for the family, even when it's the right thing to do. How will you know when its time to say goodbye to your beloved elderly dog whose arthritis seems more prevalent this year than ever before? First, consult with your veterinarian about your particular pet's condition. There are many situations that may be treatable.

 

GateHouse News Service
Pet Tip: High-tech pet innovations

Here are three pet-related Internet innovations to keep pet lovers entertained:

- Sniffing out pet news: There are probably as many pet Web sites as there are pets in this country. Love pictures of cats wearing clothes? It's out there. Craving the company of like-minded canine lovers? You can find it online. From sites for lovers of specific breeds to ones on health, behavior and emotional support, as well as blogs on every pet-related topic imaginable, it's possible to spend hours online sniffing out the content you seek. There also is a site -- petcharts.purina.com -- that fetches top pet-related news, video, photos and blog content and brings the best stuff together in one spot.

 

By Monica Mansfield
It's never fun for you and your family when you have a pet that eats strange things. The most unusual object I remember being lodged in a pet's intestine was the handle of a woman's purse. It wasn't fun for that 12-year-old dog. Some swallowed objects make it out of the body naturally, other times we have to do surgery to remove it.

When an animal is brought to the veterinary office vomiting and not eating, we need to determine if the signs could be caused by something she ate. They're curious creatures and those foreign bodies can end up lodged in the stomach or intestines. Some dogs, especially puppies, seem driven to use their mouth to explore their world, and owners of these dogs must be diligent, both in the house with socks, underwear, trash barrel contents, kids' toys, and game pieces, and in the yard with acorns, sticks, and rocks. Observe whether your dog chews apart his dog toys into pieces that may be swallowed. All of these are common foreign objects.

By Monica Mansfield
Cats can be such fantastic pets for families and owning a few of them is as easy as owning just one. In the litter box department, however, there are measures to take to promote litter box bliss. Consider them rules that cats set to keep us humans mindful.

By Robert Sears
After spiking in the early 1990s, the percentage of animals testing positive for rabies in Massachusetts has stayed significantly lower for more than a decade.

Still, people should be wary, especially as warm-weather outdoor activities increase, state public health veterinarian Catherine Brown of Pembroke said.